Corahearts
by Kagaminelover657
Summary: Kairi Heart is having a hard time with her family when they move into the Pink Palace, until she happens upon the Other World while exploring their new home. As Kairi becomes obsessed with this world's charms, her sister Namine becomes concerned for her state of mind. But when she investigates into Kairi's little "fantasy world", she finds that there is more than meets the eye...
1. Chapter 1: Where will exploring take you

**Inspiration for this story came about just the other day while I was looking up the Coraline soundtracks on YouTube, but I decided to add my own twist to it. I couldn't really come up with a good title though, so for now it shall remain as "Corahearts". Yes, this is based around "Coraline". **

**And just a heads up. If you're wondering why I used certain characters as the neighbours, it's because I struggled to find people to replace the ones from Coraline. So I tried to base them around the professions they specialise in, and will go from there. You'll see how I twist these characters into the story later. But I do hope you enjoy the first chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Where shall exploring take you?

All was quiet around the large house known as the Pink Palace, besides a certain blonde mullet haired teen with bright blue eyes who appeared to be strumming on a light blue sitar. He wore a bright blue t-shirt, with long white and blue checkered trousers, and light blue trainers with white laces. He was sat on the roof of all places, which some might have deemed as odd. But there he was, quietly strumming on his sitar, humming and tapping his foot against the roof tiles gently in time with the tune also.

The soft yet cheery music was the only sound that seemed to brighten up the area today. The sky was quite cloudy and grey that day, yet it appeared dry. There was not a speck of rain anywhere. One would wonder how that young teen could stay in such high spirits for a day that seemed so gloomy.

The Pink Palace however made the area seem very unusual and strange in contrast to today's weather. It had once been a large house; however, the landlady had converted it into a set of apartments. There was one which could be accessed by a set of steps going up towards the roof. Another could be accessed by a set of stairs that led down underneath the house. And the final one was the middle of the house.

The teen stopped playing his sitar however at the sound of an approaching car. He frowned a bit as he looked down towards the dusty road that led up to the Pink Palace. This was quite unusual in this area for cars to drive by. When the teen looked over however it wasn't just a small black car pulling up towards the side of the house. There was also a large moving van just behind it as well.

The sound of a car horn suddenly sounding loudly throughout the area startled the blonde haired teen. He found himself tumbling backwards off the roof out of fright, landing in front of his apartment door with a loud thud. He cringed a bit in pain as he stared up at the sky with his sitar across his chest.

"The new neighbours must be here…" He groaned quietly to himself.

* * *

Meanwhile a young man with short dark blue hair and bright blue eyes was standing at the steps to his apartment, which happened to lead downwards and underneath the house, silently watching as the moving men carefully brought different kinds of furniture and belongings into the apartment next door. That happened to be the main part of the house. He was wearing a white lab coat with a dark blue t-shirt and brown trousers underneath, along with plain black shoes and a purple ascot around his neck.

"So this is where all the noise is coming from…" He muttered to himself.

"Ienzo! What is going on up there?"

The young male, now revealed to be Ienzo, slowly turned his head towards the steps to find another male, who appeared to be much older than him, slowly trudge up towards him. He had light blonde hair and bright green eyes. He too was wearing a white lab coat, but it was stained with black soot along the sleeves. He also wore long black trousers that were partly covered by his lab coat and black shoes as well.

Ienzo did not seem at all concerned by the older male's current state as his gaze turned back to the moving men, with the older male now stood beside him.

"We appear to have new neighbours, Even"

The male, now revealed to be Even, gave a huge sigh out of annoyance.

"Well, this is splendid. Now there are more people who will disrupt my work. And here I thought Demyx was bad enough…"

Ienzo said nothing to Even's sarcastic remark. He was used to it by now. The two of them had been in the same apartment long enough to get to know each other's habit and such.

The two continued to watch silently as the men went back and forth from the house, still carrying any remaining furniture from the moving van. Even turned to stare at Ienzo then.

"Have you happened to see a glimpse of our new neighbours yet?"

Ienzo slowly shook his head.

"I'm sorry to say that I did not. They must have already been inside when I came out to investigate that thud, which by the way happened to be Demyx. He's fallen off the roof again in front of his apartment door"

Even slowly shook his head in disbelief as his gaze looked up towards the stairs which led to Demyx's apartment. Sure enough, there was the blonde mullet headed teen currently recovering from his blunder by dusting himself and his sitar off.

"Typical. When will that boy learn?"

Upon seeing the two males conversing by the steps of their apartment, Demyx grinned in a friendly manner and jogged his way down the steps towards them. He lifted up his hand to start off his greeting.

"Heya Ienzo, Even!"

He leaned against the railings which separated himself from the steps going downwards as Demyx's gaze turned back towards the house, his grin still in place.

"So you noticed the new neighbours too, huh?"

"Not really. Only their belongings" Ienzo replied quietly, carefully adjusting the ascot around his neck.

"Did you happen to catch a glimpse of them, Demyx?" Even asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

Demyx turned his head so that he was looking back at Even, giving him an eager nod.

"Oh yeah! I sure did! They're a family of four!"

Even's eyes widened at that.

"S-So… There are _children_ with them?"

Demyx frowned a bit in thought.

"I wouldn't say that they were "children". They looked to be young teenagers, but yeah! There are two of them!"

Even's face went a deathly pale as he slowly made his way back down the stairs and into the apartment.

"Oh Kingdom Hearts…"

Demyx blinked a bit out of confusion and turned to Ienzo.

"What's up with Even?"

Ienzo slowly shook his head and followed after Even down the steps and back into their apartment.

"It's best you don't know, Demyx. It's best you don't know"

Demyx stood there in silence for a bit longer before shrugging and slowly walking back over to his apartment, gently strumming on his sitar once again.

* * *

A black cat sat a small way away from the Pink Palace, watching Demyx with curiosity. Its attention was soon diverted however when the sound of a door slamming open was heard. The cat quickly turned its head towards the back door of the Pink Palace to find a young teenage girl with auburn hair and bright blue eyes walk out onto the steps. She was wearing a bright pink raincoat, with dark blue jeans and pink boots.

The cat watched silently as the girl's gaze turned back to the house.

"Namine, come on! Hurry up! I'm going to leave you behind!"

With a small giggle, the girl quickly started sprinting off in the opposite direction away from the house. Shortly after the girl ran off, another girl who appeared to be a year younger ran out after her. She had light blonde hair that fell down to her shoulders, just like the other girl's, and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a similar style of raincoat that was coloured white, with a light blue skirt and black boots. This girl must have been "Namine".

"Kairi, hey! Wait up!"

The cat decided to chase after the two girls as they dashed towards the large abandoned garden up ahead. The other girl, now revealed to be called Kairi, paused in front of the large iron gates leading into said garden and turned towards a small bush nearby. It appeared to be dead, since the leaves that were on it were coloured a golden brown.

With a devious smirk on her face, Kairi quickly yanked off one of the large sticks of the bush and shoved the dead leaves off as Namine managed to catch up with her. The stick which she held with both hands happened to be in the shape of a "Y". While holding onto the two ends of the stick, Kairi lunged forward with the other end towards Namine.

Namine shrieked then, having not expected Kairi to do that, and quickly back-stepped a bit to keep out of her range. She managed to dodge it luckily. She glared playfully as Kairi laughed loudly at Namine's reaction, and then watched as Kairi sped off into the garden up ahead, kicking the iron gates open as she went. She was holding the stick out in front of her, acting as if it was dragging her along by an unknown force. Namine was quick to go after her into the garden.

"Kairi Heart, get back here right now!"

Kairi continued to laugh as she ran around the small bridge that was placed in the middle of the garden, running up a set of steps on the left. The garden they had run into was pretty much as dead as the bush that was just outside the gates. The area had stone paved along the ground, which is what the small bridge near the end of the garden was made of too. It appeared to run over a small ditch in the middle of the garden. There were steps near the gate that were placed both on the left and the right. And there were also a set of steps that led down towards another iron gate at the other end of the garden.

Namine decided to try to cut Kairi off by running up the steps on the right; however, she wasn't fast enough. Kairi had run off out the other set of gates by the time she had reached the other end of the bridge using the path. She dashed after Kairi out of the gates as the black cat silently slinked on after them.

Kairi was still laughing when she reached the top end of the dirt path. She decided to stop for a moment to allow Namine to catch up. The area around her appeared to be covered mostly with dead grass, but from where she stood Kairi could see the Pink Palace down below.

Behind where she was stood, there was a small cluster of large and small boulders on the slant of a large hill. The black cat quietly dashed behind these boulders and poked its head from behind one, watching Kairi curiously. Namine finally caught up to Kairi as she gave her a look of disapproval.

"You need to be more careful with things like that, Kairi! You could have taken my eye out!"

Kairi only laughed at Namine in response as the cat placed its paw on the boulder in front of it, leaning over a little so that it could see the two girls better. However, a small bit of the rock crumbled off it. The cat meowed out of shock and quickly hid back behind one of the boulders.

The noise had caught both Namine's and Kairi's attention. They jumped back a bit as pieces of rock landed next to Kairi's foot, having rolled down the hill. The two looked up towards the line of boulders curiously. Namine frowned.

"Do you think those rocks came from there?"

Kairi gave a stiff nod.

"Probably. And I have a feeling there is someone else here besides us, Nami…"

Kairi had said the last bit out loud to make the person following them come out of hiding; however, the two girls were met with silence instead. This didn't please Kairi at all. She quickly picked up a few of the rocks that had landed by her foot and placed them in her palm. Namine watched Kairi's actions curiously, until she realised what she about to do.

"K-Kairi, I wouldn't-"

Her sentence was cut off the minute Kairi threw her arm forward, letting go of the rocks. They landed behind the boulders. A loud hiss soon followed. Namine and Kairi gasped then and backed up, becoming slightly scared. What was behind there?

Without another word, Kairi quickly grabbed hold of Namine's wrist and started dashing down the dirt path away from the gates. Namine stumbled a bit as her sister yanked her, but managed to get her feet to work and keep up with Kairi as they dashed away from where the boulders were as fast as they could.

Kairi had no idea where she was going, but at the moment she was only focused on getting her and her sister away from whatever was behind those boulders. Namine kept glancing back to make sure they weren't followed as they dashed over a small hill in the pathway, and past an old wooden cart which had been abandoned a long time ago.

When Kairi and Namine finally stopped running, the two found themselves surrounded by a large patch of barren ground. Dead grass and trees made the atmosphere around them much more terrifying than before. The two silently stood within a small circle made of tiny rocks on the ground as they looked around the area, trembling horridly. The only sounds that currently filled the air around them were the wind blowing harshly by, the sound of an owl calling out towards the sky, and their own heavy breathing.

"D-Did we lose it?" Kairi questioned with a shaky and quiet voice.

"I-I think so…! I didn't see anything chase us here, so-"

The two girls gasped simultaneously as they heard a small rustle come from the large patch of dead grass behind them. The two could hear tiny footsteps, but couldn't make out where it was coming from because of the wind. The same loud hiss they had heard before suddenly sounded behind them again, causing the two girls to scream out in horror and quickly swirl around to the source.

By this point, Kairi was shielding Namine with the stick she had been holding the entire time with both her trembling hands. The two seemed to calm down however when they saw a black cat stretch out its front paws, and stick its tail and butt up in the air. It appeared to be getting ready to pounce at them. It was standing on a large rock.

Namine let out a small sigh of relief.

"It was just a cat. What a relief…!"

Kairi on the other hand was not happy with this result. She glared angrily at the cat.

"You scared us to death, you mangy thing!"

She got into a fighting stance with the stick still held tightly in her hands. Namine frowned at her sister worriedly. The cat shifted its position a bit as it eyed Kairi with caution with its big blue eyes. It acted like it understood what Kairi said.

"K-Kairi, don't pick a fight with it…! It didn't mean any harm…!"

Kairi ignored her as she eyed the cat with annoyance.

"It interrupted our search for the old well! It scared us for nothing! I mean, look at it! It's old and scrawny! No wonder we mistook it for some kind of wild animal!"

The cat remained in the same position as Kairi pointed the end of the stick threateningly at it.

"Do you know where the well is?"

The cat straightened itself up a bit and blinked at Kairi in response. Namine huffed and slowly shook her head at her sister's actions.

"It's a _cat_, Kairi. It might be able to understand you, but it certainly can't tell you where the well is"

She slowly walked away from her as Kairi turned around to face Namine, moving out of the little circle on the ground.

"I don't see why you're so fascinated with the well, anyway. It's not as if the myth in that book is true! I know you're interested in myths and ancient stories like that, but…"

Kairi smirked at her sister as she held the stick up in front of her.

"On the contrary, that is what we came to find out, dear sister. Now watch and learn"

Namine facepalmed as Kairi slowly stepped out the circle, closing her eyes tightly and holding the stick up a bit higher in front of her.

"Oh Kingdom Hearts…"

The wind began to pick up a bit as Kairi finally came to a stop a small way away from the circle.

"Magic dowser, magic dowser… Show us the well!"

A loud horn sounded from above them, causing both Kairi and Namine to swirl around out of fright. Kairi's eyes were open now. Thunder rumbled through the air as the wind blew harshly around them. A lightning strike lit up what appeared to be two ghoul looking creatures sat on a small motorcycle on the hill above the girls. The one sat behind the ghoul driving the motorcycle appeared to be a bit taller. They both had bright white skull like faces, with bright glowing green eyes. The motorcycle had been pulled up by the smaller ghoul driving it onto its back wheel.

Kairi's and Namine's eyes widened as they both let out frightened gasps. That was something they both had not been expecting at all. The motorcycle came charging down towards them from the hill. Kairi was quick to get in front of Namine in an attempt to shield her as the motorcycle came towards them. Both girls screamed as they tried to back away from the charging bike.

The handle however knocked Kairi in her left side as it skimmed past them. She fell into Namine, and the two ended up falling into a small heap in the mud. The bike skidded to a halt as both riders quickly climbed off it. Lightning struck again as the two ghoul like riders approached the girls, lighting up their black raincoats, trousers and boots.

As Kairi and Namine tried to quickly scramble to their feet, now they were both caked in mud from their coats down to their boots, the two ghoul things seemed to remove their faces. They were actually masks. And behind the masks was a spiky brunette haired boy with bright blue eyes, and a long silver haired boy with greeny-blue eyes. He was the taller one, and appeared to be older than the brunette haired boy by a year. He also appeared to be a bit older than both Kairi and Namine too. The brunette however seemed to be around Kairi's age.

A wide grin came to the brunette haired boy's face as he picked up the stick that Kairi had been holding moments ago. He, along with the silver haired boy, wore black leather gloves on his hands.

"Hey, hey Riku! These must be from the family that moved into the Pink Palace a short while ago from Radiant Garden! You know, the ones Grandma told us about!"

The silver haired boy, now revealed to be Riku, glared at the younger boy.

"Sora, you do just realise you nearly ran over these two with your bike, right?"

The brunette, now revealed to be called Sora, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a gloved hand.

"Eheh… Oops"

Riku sighed heavily as he turned back towards Kairi and Namine, who appeared to have calmed down by now.

"I apologise for my cousin's carelessness. He did not mean to nearly run you both over"

Sora however was twisting the stick in between his hands curiously.

"What were you doing with this thing anyway? It just looks like some ordinary stick to me, not the magic you were shouting about. What were you trying to be? A water witch?"

Kairi got annoyed at that remark. She stormed forward towards Sora and snatched the stick away angrily.

"It's supposed to be a dowsing rod, thank you very much!"

Sora moved back then, alarmed by Kairi's sudden abruptness.

"And I certainly don't like the fact that you two were stalking me and my sister, or having your cat stalk us too!"

She pointed towards the black cat that had come to sit by Sora's foot. Sora stared down at the cat curiously.

"Oh, he's not our cat. He's… more of a stray, but me and my cousin do feed him. And sometimes he does tend to come to our bedroom window and leave us little dead things"

Sora gently stroked the cat's head as Namine cringed a bit at the "dead things" part of Sora's sentence. Kairi on the other hand didn't seem fazed by this at all. She was still angry.

"Look, we are from the family that just moved into the Pink Palace, _if _you must know. And if I am supposed to be some "water witch", then where's the secret well?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at Kairi then.

"You're actually trying to look for the old well? Why's that?"

Kairi narrowed her eyes at him then suspiciously. Namine kind of stepped in front of Kairi to cover up her glare.

"We just wanted to see if it actually existed. Well, my sister did anyway…"

At that, Kairi gently pushed Namine aside and took a couple of steps towards Riku, pointing the end of the stick at his throat.

"Do you know where it is?"

Riku looked down underneath Kairi's feet for a moment. She was stood back in the middle of the circle again.

"You're standing on it"

Kairi quickly looked down and yelped as she stumbled back out of the circle. Namine giggled a bit at Kairi's reaction as Riku knelt down and moved some of the mud away with his gloved hands. Underneath it there appeared to be something wooden. He gave it a small tap with his fist, causing a low hollow sound to echo around them.

"See"

He stood up again as Sora stuck a small plank of wood underneath the wooden thing, standing on it with his foot to lift it up. It was actually a wooden cover that had been placed over the well.

"Apparently this well is so deep, that if you were to fall in and hit the bottom, you would see a sky full of stars during the middle of the day"

Namine noticed that Sora's eyes seemed to light up with wonder as he said these words. She assumed he must be interested in the myths like Kairi was. As Kairi knelt down to examine the uncovered well, Sora continued talking to Namine instead.

"I'm surprised you were allowed to move in. You see, our Grandma happens to own the Pink Palace. She's the landlady. She has never allowed anyone into there who happen to have kids"

Namine raised an eyebrow at that. What an odd thing to do…

"Why's that?"

Riku gave Sora a small smack around the back of the head, sighing at Namine.

"Ignore Sora. He isn't supposed to be talking about those things, now are you?"

Sora gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head where Riku had smacked him. Riku held out a hand towards Namine, showing her a friendly smile.

"But first, let's get properly acquainted. I'm Riku. Riku Dawn. And this is my younger cousin, Sora Hikari"

Sora gave Namine a cheesy grin as Riku said his name. Namine gave a friendly smile in return as she gently shook Riku's hand.

"I'm Namine. Namine Heart. And this is my older sister, Kairi. It's nice to meet you both!"

Kairi slowly stood up then and gave a small nod in response. She still didn't look happy.

"Hmph. Sure"

She grumbled that, but Namine still heard it. She frowned at her sister.

"Kairi, be nice!"

Kairi raised an eyebrow in return.

"I should be nice to the boys that _nearly ran us over with their bike_?"

She purposely said that emphasised so she could get Namine to understand why she was in such a foul mood. Namine went to object.

"Riku! Sora!"

She was interrupted however by a voice calling Sora and Riku. The two boys looked behind them in surprise as they heard an elderly like voice call out their names.

"Sounds like Grandma is calling us back, Sora"

Sora quickly dashed over towards his bike, quickly putting his mask back on. Riku followed him as Sora lifted his bike upright again. The two sat down on it as Namine and Kairi watched them in silence. Sora turned to the two, grinning underneath his mask.

"Well, it was nice to meet you both, especially the water witch…"

Kairi frowned at her nickname, causing Sora to cough awkwardly.

"But… Er… _Kairi_, was it? You might want to wear gloves next time"

Kairi raised an eyebrow at that.

"Why?"

Sora chuckled nervously.

"W-Well… Erm… Because that "dowsing rod" of yours is actually… poison oak! Bye!"

Sora quickly started his bike back up again as Kairi yelped and quickly dropped the stick, rubbing her hands on her raincoat. Namine placed a hand to her mouth to muffle her laughter as Sora and Riku charged away from the area. That did not help matters.

Kairi looked at her sister and glared angrily.

"Don't. You. Dare"

Namine coughed to hide her laughter and looked away from her sister awkwardly. The cat looked back at the two curiously before quickly bounding away. Kairi huffed annoyed.

"I hate that scrawny furball…"

Namine giggled a bit as she started walking away from the area.

"Well, we've found the well now! There's no need for you to worry about the cat anymore! Let's go before it pours down with rain"

Kairi knelt back down by the well however, picking up a bit of mud in her hands.

"Wait! I wanna try something"

Namine stopped and looked back as she saw Kairi rolling the soggy mud in between her palms, trying to form it into a small ball.

"Kairi, stop playing around in the mud! We need to go!"

"I know! I know! I just want to see if what Sora said is true"

Namine slowly walked back to her sister and knelt down on one knee beside the well, raising an eyebrow.

"You _actually _believe what Sora said?"

Kairi shook her head slowly, giving Namine a small smile.

"Of course not! I just want to make sure he isn't right though"

Then, without warning, Kairi quickly shoved the small ball of mud through a tiny hole in the wooden cover. Both Kairi and Namine turned their heads to the side simultaneously and leaned down towards the wooden cover, pressing their ears against the wood. Their heads were nearly touching.

The two of them waited in silence as the wind around them began to worsen. After a short while, a splashing sound echoed around the inside of the well. The two girls quickly lifted up their heads again as Kairi smirked triumphantly.

"Ha! I knew it! The well isn't that deep!"

That was when Kairi cringed as a cold drop of water landed on the top of her head. This was soon followed by another landing on the ground beside her, which turned into loads of water drops starting to hammer down from the sky. It had started raining.

Namine glared at Kairi as the two slowly stood up. She struggled to yank up the hood of her raincoat over her head.

"I told you it was going to rain!"

Kairi gave Namine a playful shrug.

"Hey, a bit of water won't kill you, right? I'll race you back home!"

Before Namine could say anymore, Kairi had already started running away from the well and back towards the path, clumsily pulling her hood up. With a frown, Namine dashed after her.

"Hey! Wait for me!"


	2. Chapter 2: Where will curiosity lead you

**I have to admit that I really enjoyed writing this chapter. No clue why though.**

**But anyway, thank you to everyone who has been reading this so far, and also to the person who favourited this story too. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. And now I shall give you Chapter 2. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Where will curiosity lead you?

Kairi sighed heavily as she watched the rain pour down outside the kitchen window, gently placing four different packets of flower and vegetable seeds along the windowsill. Kairi still had her raincoat on, which by now had been cleaned off from yesterday's mud splatter, while Namine had left hers off, revealing that she had been wearing a plain white long sleeved t-shirt underneath it. She'd also been wearing light blue leggings; although it was hard to tell when she wore her raincoat, since her coat was quite big in size for her.

She happened to be sitting at the small round table within the tiny kitchen of their "apartment", boredly tapping her fingers against it. A young woman sat across from Namine on the other side of the table, silently typing away on a silver laptop. She had short blue hair that shaped around her face until it reached past her chin, and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a bright blue woolly jumper and plain black trousers. She had a medical cast around her neck, and at this moment in time she seemed to be focusing solely on what she was typing.

Kairi frowned as she once again scratched her hands, which were now covered with a large red rash across her palm caused by the poison oak. They were really itchy, and despite Namine telling her not to scratch, she couldn't help it. It was unbearable.

The kitchen was silent, until Kairi decided to break it.

"Hey Mom. Namine and I nearly fell down a well yesterday"

Namine sighed quietly to herself as her sister said that. She knew why Kairi appeared to be making a fool out of herself. The woman, now known to be their mother "Aqua", didn't look away from her laptop screen at all as Kairi spoke. In fact, she continued typing away.

"… U-huh"

That was all she said in response. This didn't shut Kairi up as she continued to place the seeds along the windowsill above the sink.

"We could have died"

"… That's nice"

It was clear that their mother was not paying attention to what Kairi was saying. Of course, Namine had expected this to happen. Ever since they had moved here, their parents had been too busy with their work to even acknowledge that either Kairi or Namine were there. They wouldn't talk to them at all, and when either of them tried to strike a conversation, they would just get told to go away or to let them work. And Kairi's stupid attempts of saying things about them "endangering their lives" wasn't making the situation any better.

Kairi slowly turned around then and moved away from the window, coming to stand behind Namine's chair as Aqua continued typing.

"So… Can Namine and I go out? I think it's perfect weather for gardening! Right, Namine?"

Namine glared at her sister as if to say "Keep me out of this". Aqua briefly looked up from her laptop to stare out the window, before turning her attention back to it again. She sighed heavily.

"No Kairi. Rain makes mud, and mud makes a mess. You two have already gotten yourselves muddy once, as shown by your raincoat…"

Kairi frowned a bit then. She'd forgotten that those two had fallen over in the mud yesterday. She was still blaming Sora for that little incident…

She huffed then and placed her hands on the table, leaning forward towards Aqua a little.

"But Mom, I want stuff to start growing by the time our friends come to visit! Isn't that why we moved here?"

Aqua looked up again at Kairi as she slowly shook her head dismissively.

"Something like that. Then, we had the accident…"

She pointed towards the cast around her neck. Kairi glared annoyed then and stood up straight, turning her back to her mother and folding her arms stubbornly.

"Well it wasn't our fault you hit that truck…!"

She grumbled it, but Aqua still heard.

"I never said it was…"

She sounded fed up. Namine awkwardly looked down at the table. She hated it when Kairi and their parents argued with one another. Of course, there was nothing she could do about it besides avoid getting involved. But even she started arguments with their parents sometimes. That couldn't be helped. The two girls wanted their parents to act caring towards them, yet at the moment that didn't seem to be the case.

Kairi shook her head as she continued to scratch her rash on her hands again.

"I can't believe it… You and Dad get to write about "plants", and you don't even like dirt"

Aqua sighed and looked up at Kairi then, frowning a bit.

"Kairi, I don't have time for you right now. And you and Namine still have unpacking to do-"

She leaned forward towards the two girls as she frowned further, raising her voice slightly with an annoyed tone to match.

"-_Lots of unpacking_"

Kairi and Namine exchanged silent glances as Kairi rolled her eyes and turned her head away slightly.

"That sounds _exciting_!"

Of course Kairi was being sarcastic with that remark. But that seemed to make Aqua remember something.

"Oh…-"

Kairi and Namine watched on in confusion as Aqua leaned over the side of her chair to pick up something off the floor. It was wrapped in an old cloth, and was quite small in size.

"-Some boy left this on the front porch. I don't know who it's for though. I didn't read the note"

Aqua held it out towards Namine across the table. With a confused frown, Namine carefully took the small bundle of cloth from her mother's hands. Upon seeing the name on the bottom of the note, and having read it fully, she held it up to Kairi.

"Apparently this is for you"

Confused, Kairi carefully took the bundle from her sister and teared off the note. The note said:

"_Hey, Kairi,_

_I found this in my Grandma's trunk. Look familiar?_

_~Sora"_

Kairi grunted annoyed as she dropped the note on the table.

"It's from _Sora_. Great…"

Namine chuckled a bit.

"Still mad about yesterday, huh?"

"Pfft! Of course! He nearly ran us over with that bike of his!"

Kairi began unwrapping the cloth from around the item inside of it.

"I bet this is going to be something really stupid. Like a-"

She paused mid-sentence however as her eyes fell upon the item in question. Her eyes widened a bit. Namine tilted her head slightly to the side out of worry and confusion.

"Kairi, what's the- Oh my…"

She'd gotten up to see the item for herself, and now she could understand why Kairi was so shocked. The item was in fact a doll, but not just any ordinary doll. It was a doll that looked exactly like Kairi. It had the same coloured and styled hair, same type and coloured raincoat she always wore… It was almost an exact replica of Kairi. The only thing that was different was that it had two black buttons for eyes, and it was clear that those buttons had been sowed on.

Namine and Kairi stared at the doll in shock and confusion.

"That… is a bit creepy…" Namine commented quietly. "It almost looks like a mini "you", Kairi…"

Kairi however seemed to get over her shock now. She gave a small shrug.

"Must be a coincidence I suppose!"

"What's his name anyway?" Aqua butted in.

She'd still been staring at her laptop the whole time, not really paying attention. Kairi was surprised she was trying to converse with them at least a little.

"_Sora_…"

Kairi then began walking off, carrying the doll with her.

"And besides, I'm way too old for dolls!"

Namine quickly followed after her sister as the two left the kitchen and headed towards the room just opposite. She knew what Kairi was going to do next. She was going to try to ask their Father instead, just to see if they could go outside.

As the two walked, Namine smirked a bit at Kairi.

"Well, well, looks like someone might have a secret admirer~"

Kairi gave Namine a cold glare.

"Stop putting stupid ideas into your head, Nami! Sora doesn't like me, and I don't like him either! And besides, we've only just met!"

"Well then, it's love at first sight, isn't it?"

Namine giggled then as Kairi looked away annoyed, fuming silently to herself. When they were nearing the room which their Father had made as his study, Kairi smirked a bit. Without warning, she grabbed Namine's wrist gently and began walking quicker towards the door. Namine stumbled as she was yanked along.

"H-Hey, what are you-?"

"You're asking Dad if we can go outside now. And you can thank your cheeky remark for that"

"Kairi! That's not fair!"

Kairi continued to smirk at her sister as she gently pulled Namine in front of her.

"It is fair! And besides, you and Dad get along better. He'll listen to you"

Before Namine could object any further, Kairi gently shoved her into the door. It opened with a loud creak to reveal boxes stacked everywhere. There were three large windows at the far end of the room, and like the kitchen it appeared to be quite small. The room was quite dark because of the grey clouds outside, so there wasn't much light in there. It was quite dim.

Sat at an old computer placed upon a large desk, was a young man with short, brown, spiked up hair and bright blue eyes. He too was wearing a similar jumper to Aqua, but it was a light brown colour. He was also wearing light blue jeans and white trainers to match. Like Aqua, he appeared to be focusing on typing. He had his back to the doorway.

Kairi gently nudged Namine in the ribs as the two stood in the doorway side by side, indicating for her to say something. With a quiet huff, Namine gave a small nod and stared at the man's back.

"… Hey Dad. How's the writing going?"

The man, now revealed to be their Father "Terra", did not turn around or say a word to show that he had acknowledged what Namine had just said. Kairi nudged her in the ribs again, a bit more forcefully this time, to indicate for her to try again. Namine leaned forward a bit on her toes, waving her hands about in the reflection of her Father's computer screen.

"Dad!"

Terra let out a quiet sigh when he saw Namine waving her arms about in front of the screen.

"Hello Namine, Kairi"

His voice was monotone. He didn't seem at all excited or happy that those two were standing in the doorway. However he frowned a bit and looked back when he spotted the doll in Kairi's hands. He blinked a bit in surprise.

"And hello to the… Kairi doll"

Terra turned back to typing as Kairi once again elbowed Namine in the ribs. This time, Namine gave her a death glare and quickly turned back towards Terra as he continued typing.

"Do you know where the gardening tools are?"

Silence filled the air in between them, with the only sounds being from Terra's keyboard as he typed away. After a moment, Terra responded.

"It's… It's pouring down out there, isn't it?"

Namine looked away awkwardly as she tried to think of a way to improvise.

"Well… It isn't that bad…"

"What did the "boss" say?"

Aqua was the one in charge of what happened within the house mainly, so everyone had to listen to what she said. That is how she'd earned that little nickname from Terra.

Kairi jumped up and down a bit with excitement.

"Oh! Oh! I can do a _perfect _imitation of what she said!"

Namine raised an eyebrow at her sister as Kairi casually cleared her throat before talking.

"Don't even think about going out, Kairi and Namine Heart!"

She'd said the line in a weird voice, almost shouting it in fact into the doll's face. Namine had chuckled a bit at that. Her sister over exaggerated everything.

Terra gave a small shrug as he typed.

"Well then, I guess you won't need the tools"

Kairi and Namine both groaned out of frustration. And then Kairi had an idea. A devious smile came onto her face, one which Namine didn't really like the look of. She watched confused as Kairi took hold of the door handle with one hand and slowly began to swing back and forth with it. It made a loud creak every time. Namine caught on to what she was trying to do then. She was trying to annoy Terra in order for them to be allowed outside.

At first, Terra didn't seem fazed by this reaction. But then after a good ten seconds of it, he sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. He placed his hands over his face as Kairi came to a stop with a triumphant grin.

"You know-"

He slowly swirled around in his chair to face the two girls as he removed his hands from his face.

"-this house is one hundred and fifty years old"

Kairi folded her arms at that.

"So?"

Terra leaned over towards his desk again and picked up two notebooks and two pens from it, slowly leaning back again to hand them to Kairi and Namine.

"So, go explore it! Go out and count all the windows and doors, or list everything that's blue! Just… Let me work"

Without saying another word, Terra slowly turned back around in his chair and continued to type at his computer. Kairi huffed annoyed and stormed out of the room with the notebook, unbuttoning her raincoat while she was at it. Namine silently followed and quietly closed the door behind them.

"Well, we tried"

Kairi threw off her raincoat to reveal she had been wearing a light pink long sleeved t-shirt in a similar style to Namine's, allowing her coat to land on the floor in the hallway. Of course she didn't care. She was annoyed enough already.

She walked off down the hallway towards the stairs with Namine following close behind, swinging her doll around with her in her other hand.

"Since we have nothing better to do…-"

Kairi came to a stop on the rug as she turned around to face Namine, who stopped abruptly as she turned around.

"-How about we make this interesting?"

Namine tilted her head to the side out of confusion.

"And _how _do you propose we do that, Kairi?"

The older girl smiled at Namine in a competitive like manner.

"Let's see if you and I can get the same answers. We'll split up and look around the house for all the doors, windows, anything that is blue, and anything else that seems faulty. We'll meet back in the living room to see who has found the most items altogether"

Namine gently tapped the pen that she was holding to her chin in thought for a moment before sighing a bit.

"Very well. Although I doubt you'll manage to find them all before me"

Kairi gave a small chuckle as she continued on down the hallway.

"We shall see, little sister, we shall see…"

As Namine slowly shook her head at Kairi dismissively, Kairi quickly disappeared up the stairs to the left. Namine continued on walking down the hallway. She nearly fell forward for some reason. It was quite sudden. She stumbled a bit.

"W-Whoa!"

She managed to regain her balance quickly though. She stared down at the rug with a frown to find there was a lump in front of her feet. She heard Kairi laughing at her from upstairs.

"Already found something! One very lumpy rug! Thanks for that Namine!"

Namine glared up at the stairs as she heard her footsteps walking slowly across the landing. Well, this wasn't a good start for her...

Huffing a bit, Namine flattened it down by stomping on it with her foot. This only resulted in the lump rolling underneath her and reappearing behind.

Namine looked back with her frown still in place, huffing louder this time out of annoyance. She reached out with her other foot to stomp on it again. It ended up reappearing in between her legs. Bringing her feet back together, she tried once more to flatten the lump with both her feet.

This resulted in two more lumps reappearing on either side of her. She groaned out of frustration and decided to give up, storming off down the hallway.

"I don't have time to be playing about with the rug…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Kairi had wandered into one of the rooms upstairs. She was stood in front of the large window at the far end of the room. And surprisingly, she still had the doll with her. Even though she told her mother that she was too old for dolls, Kairi had actually grown attached to her mini self. Probably because this was the first time she'd come across a doll that looked like her.

Plus, the doll was providing with different company for once. I mean, she didn't dislike her sister's company, but she finally had someone else that would agree with her more times than Namine ever did.

The two sisters were completely different in terms of personality. Whereas Kairi was the one who was into uncovering the truth behind everything and being adventurous, Namine was more practical. She assumed that all legends or myths were untrue, and she didn't have much of an imagination like Kairi. That was why Kairi was glad to have a second "self" around.

The window was fogged up, so Kairi used the sleeve of her t-shirt to wipe two small circles on the glass to clear the condensation away. The one circle was lower down than the other, and that is where Kairi placed the doll's face. She allowed it to look out the window through that circle, while she looked through the other one.

There was nothing of interest to her outside anyway, so she turned back to the notebook she'd been given and began to scribble down on it.

"Twelve leaky windows..."

She jumped a bit when a drop of water suddenly dropped onto the notebook, staining and soaking through the page. Kairi huffed at that and continued on to search upstairs.

* * *

Through every room she went to, Kairi hung off the top of the door as it opened before jumping down. That was her way of counting all the doors upstairs, and also to kill her boredom while she searched for stuff. You never know. She could find something on the ceiling that Namine would never spot. She made sure she noted everything down in her notebook as she went.

Her little adventure then brought her to the bathroom. She placed the doll, notebook and pen on the toilet lid as she pulled the shower curtain back. She was met with a disgusting sight. Bugs were crawling across the tiles above the bath.

Being quick to get rid of them, Kairi climbed into the bath, sounded a battle cry, and began squishing all the bugs with the palms of her hands as fast as she could. Although when Kairi realised what she'd done _after_ getting rid of them all, she shuddered in disgust at the squished bugs on her palms.

"Better wash my hands off..."

She decided to try to turn on the taps within the bath. She crouched down a bit and turned the nearest tap to her. But when she did, no water came out the tap at all. Kairi frowned at this in confusion, until she felt cold water suddenly plummet down onto her neck and the back of her head.

She yelped and leapt back a bit, only to find the water had come out of the shower instead. Her hair was dripping wet. Kairi sighed heavily as she shook her head back and forth quickly in order to dry her hair off.

Kairi heard a familiar giggle come from the doorway to the bathroom. She looked in that direction with a frown as she saw Namine standing there, giggling at her and writing down in her notebook.

"One faulty pair of bath taps. Thanks for that, Kairi"

Kairi rolled her eyes as Namine skipped away patronisingly. Why were all the bad things happening to her and not Namine? How was this fair?

* * *

Namine jumped down the stairs two at a time, until she paused four steps away from the bottom. The lump in the rug was still there. With a smirk, Namine leapt from the fourth step and finally flattened the rug properly.

"Ha! Finally! Gotcha!"

She flinched a bit however when she heard a loud creak behind her. She slowly turned to the right to see a door near the stairs that was open ajar. Curiosity got the better of Namine, and so she decided to investigate.

Upon opening the door wider and stepping inside a little, Namine found the room to be quite dim. The only light in there came from one lone light bulb. She could however make out the shape of a rusted looking boiler within the tiny room. It appeared to be some kind of cupboard. She scribbled this down in her notebook.

"One rusty boiler... I'm pretty sure Kairi hasn't found this yet"

With a triumphant smile, Namine casually walked out of the cupboard, flicking off the light switch as she went. She froze when she'd walked a small way away from the door however as she saw the lights flickering around her.

"Uh oh..."

Kairi was already halfway down the stairs when the lights started to flicker on and off quickly. She turned to Namine confused, leaning over the banister a little.

"What's going on?"

"N-No... NOOOOOOOOO-"

The two girls jumped suddenly when they heard Terra cry out from his study, as the lights suddenly flickered off. The light switch seemed to have affected the whole electricity within the house...

Panicking, Namine quickly dashed back into the cupboard and looked at the light switch. There was a torn piece of paper above it. She carefully lifted it up and read it out loud.

"Don't touch"

She bit her lip.

"Whoops..."

Namine quickly flicked the light back on again in the cupboard, which seemed to fix the electricity everywhere else. She sighed with relief then and quickly dashed out the cupboard, slamming the door shut with her back and whistling loudly as she quickly walked away from the door and down the hall.

Kairi laughed loudly at her as Namine turned back to glare.

"One faulty light switch. Learn to read the warnings first, Nami!"

Namine growled annoyed as Kairi quickly dashed off down the stairs and back down the other side of the hallway, still laughing her head off.

"I'm still going to beat you, Kairi!"

She quickly dashed off in the opposite direction.

* * *

When the two had finally found everything that they could, Kairi and Namine met up in the living room and counted the items on their checklists. They were both stood on either side of a small round table with a large cardboard box filled with snow globes on it. Kairi had placed her doll on the table in front of the box, sitting in a slumped position.

Kairi looked up from her notebook towards her sister with a huge grin.

"I found 24 items"

Namine's head snapped up in shock as her eyes widened at Kairi.

"24?!"

Her gaze fell back down to her notebook.

"B-But I only found 23 items...! H-How did you-?"

"-How many doors did you find?"

Namine frowned in thought at Kairi for a moment.

"Erm... 8 I think"

"Did you count the front door?"

Namine's eyes widened then in realisation. Her sister knew her too well. Kairi laughed loudly at her reaction.

"Looks like I won after all...~"

Namine rolled her eyes playfully as she laughed along with Kairi.

"I have to admit, that was quite fun. Shame we can't do it again, right?"

Kairi slowly nodded in agreement.

"Yeah..."

Her eyes fell upon the snow globes in the box. They had been covered with tissue paper so that they didn't break during the shipping. These had been snow globes that the girls had received during their trips out to places away from Radiant Garden.

Kairi carefully picked up one of them as she headed over to the fireplace, gently placing it on the far left of the mantle piece.

"Hey Nami, could you please pass me the other two snow globes?"

As Namine placed her notebook down on the table to grab the other snow globes, she noticed something off. Kairi's doll wasn't on the table. It was there a moment ago, wasn't it?

Namine shrugged the thought off as she picked up the two remaining snow globes, thinking that Kairi had taken it with her to the fireplace. Yet when she approached Kairi, she wasn't holding the doll. That is strange. If Kairi didn't have the doll, then…

"Kairi, where's your doll?"

Kairi turned towards the table to find her doll missing. She blinked in surprise.

"You didn't move it, did you?"

Namine shook her head.

"Nope. I haven't touched it"

Kairi slowly walked over to the table then and crouched down, looking underneath it.

"Alright little me, where are you hiding?"

Namine had a quick glance around the room then, rolling her eyes playfully.

"Come on, Kairi! It's a doll! Dolls can't talk!"

"Well, they can't move on their own either. Are you sure you didn't perhaps knock her off the table without knowing?"

"Kairi, I _did not_ touch your doll. You'd have known if I- Oh!"

Kairi stopped her search abruptly then and followed Namine's gaze towards the doll. There it was. It was lying on its left side facing the two of them, with half of its body hidden behind a large square piece of cardboard.

Kairi slowly walked over to it with a chuckle.

"So that's where you got to!"

As she knelt down to pick the doll up however, she saw something peculiar on the wall behind the large piece of cardboard. With a frown, Kairi shoved the cardboard away roughly.

Namine shrieked and quickly stumbled back as the cardboard hit the floor with a loud smack. She glared at Kairi.

"Hey! Watch where- Huh…?"

Namine's eyes had followed Kairi's towards a square object clearly visible despite being covered over with wallpaper. It appeared to be some kind of door, since the two of them could see a keyhole there.

Namine curiously knelt down beside Kairi as she began tapping the middle of the door with her hands curiously.

"I never realised there was a door here. I wonder where this led to…"

"It probably doesn't lead to anything anymore, Kairi. That's why it must have been covered over"

Kairi turned her head towards the opening into the living room.

"Hey Mom! Do you know where this door goes?"

"Kairi, I'm really, really busy right now!"

Aqua had shouted back from the kitchen. Kairi poked the covered lock with her index finger.

"I think it's locked! Could you open it, Mom?!"

Kairi was met with silence. Namine sighed heavily.

"Kairi, I doubt there is anything behind there. Don't bug Mom about it"

Kairi ignored Namine however.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Mom!"

The sound of a chair scraping across the floor could be heard in the room next door. This was soon followed by loud footsteps coming towards the living room. Aqua quickly walked into the living room and over to where Kairi and Namine were. She didn't look very happy.

Kairi scooted back a bit and pointed at the door to Aqua. Aqua placed both hands on her hips, took one quick glance at the door, and then looked back at Kairi.

"If I do this for you two, will you stop pestering me?"

Kairi gave her mother the puppy dog look, whimpering and nodding slowly. Aqua huffed annoyed and left the room to go and get the key.

"Fine!"

Kairi and Namine quickly moved away from the door so that Aqua could get to it when she came back. Namine shook her head at her sister.

"I bet you're just wasting Mom's time. I bet there's nothing behind there"

"We'll see soon enough, sis. Besides, I can feel it in my gut! And my gut is never wrong!"

"Oh really? So, did your gut tell you that your "dowsing rod" was covered in poison oak yesterday?"

Kairi gave Namine a glare as Aqua came back with a small black key in her hand. The one thing that Namine found really odd about the key was that the top of it was in the shape of a button. And it looked like the same button on the doll that Kairi had…

Aqua kneeled down in front of the door and slowly began to use the teeth of the key to cut away the wallpaper surrounding the door. Kairi was getting fidgety from excitement as Aqua put the key in the lock, and then slowly turned it. A wide grin came to Kairi's face as the door was quickly opened; however that grin soon dropped.

There were only bricks behind the door. It was part of the brick wall of the building. Nothing out of the ordinary. Namine folded her arms, smirking.

"See Kairi. Looks like your gut was wrong again"

Kairi stared at the bricks in disbelief.

"Bricks? That's it?"

Aqua sighed heavily.

"They must have blocked this off when they divided up the house"

Kairi stared at her mother now in disbelief as she slowly stood up again and began walking out of the room, taking the key with her.

"You're kidding! And why is the door so small?"

Aqua quickly turned around and pointed an accusing finger at Kairi.

"We made a deal. Now zip it!"

The two girls watched in silence as Aqua quickly left the room again. After a moment, Kairi spoke up.

"You forgot to lock the door!"

A loud irritated groan sounded from the kitchen, followed by the slamming of a kitchen draw. They quickly assumed Aqua had decided to give up with the door...


	3. Chapter 3: Where will the door lead you

**Thank you once again to everyone who has been reading this fanfic, and also to the ones who have favourited and followed this fanfic. It's nice to know that people like this story. I hope you enjoy reading chapter 3! :)**

**P.S. I changed a few of the lyrics to the Other Father's song so that it rhymed with Kairi's name, cause I think it sounds better while rhyming, so I tried to keep it that way. That's /tried/. XD**

* * *

Chapter 3: Where will the door lead you?

Namine silently sat on her bed with her sketchbook on her lap in the dim lighting of the room, drawing a picture of Kairi's doll lying down fast first on Kairi's bed. She had to squint her eyes a bit to see her sketchbook properly, since the only light that was in the room actually came from one lone light bulb above Kairi's bed.

She was currently wearing a long sleeved nightie that went down to her ankles, which was coloured white. There happened to be a medium gap between these two beds, and both of them had bedside tables next to them on the right side for Namine and the left side for Kairi.

The room itself wasn't a pretty picture to look at either. The walls were a dirty cream like colour, with the wooden floor beneath them being a dark brown. The beds were quite wide and long. Namine's bed was covered with light blue bedding, while Kairi's was pink. The girls each had their own personal colour.

On the other side of the room, near to where the door was on the far left, was a small corner where there were three small upright rectangle windows, along with a small windowsill underneath it. Opposite to where the beds were, there was an old fireplace; although this didn't appear to be useable. Their bags had been shoved underneath their beds for the time being. The two were too lazy to unpack.

The bedroom door was currently open at the moment, which is where gagging sounds could be heard. Well, it was coming from a room somewhere near the bedroom out in the hallway.

Namine let out a loud huff and stopped colouring in the little pink raincoat she'd drawn, slowly glancing up from her sketchbook towards the bathroom door a short way away from their bedroom. It was currently closed.

"Kairi, what are you doing in there? What happened to brushing your teeth?"

After a few more seconds of silence, Kairi poked her head around the door and gave Namine an annoyed look.

"That was before I found some of Dad's left over mash potato in my mouth…"

She shuddered and slowly went back into the bathroom again, but she left the door open slightly ajar. The sound of running water could be heard. Kairi had left the tap on still. Namine shook her head dismissively and glanced over at Kairi's doll.

"I don't understand how you can put up with her. I mean, you may look like Kairi, but you certainly don't act like her"

"Namine, who are you talking to?!"

Kairi had called back from the bathroom again. She'd turned the tap off now. Running water could no longer be heard. Namine turned her head back towards the bathroom.

"I'm talking to little you. She's actually better company. Unlike you, she doesn't complain all the time"

Kairi flicked off the bathroom light and slowly walked into the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her. She was wearing pink pyjamas, which consisted of a long sleeved shirt and trousers.

Kairi playfully rolled her eyes at her sister as she lay down on the bed, picking up her doll beside her and placing it to her chest.

"At least little me agrees with me about Dad's food. He was totally trying to poison us"

Namine chuckled a bit as she hung her legs over the side of the bed and pulled out her bag, shoving her pencils and crayons back into it. Kairi sighed and lifted her doll away from her chest, holding it above her and staring at its smiling face.

"Why can't Mom cook instead?"

Namine cleared her throat then to prepare to speak in a high pitched mocking voice.

"We've already been through this Kairi. Dad cooks, I clean, and you and Namine stay out of the way. That's the end of it"

Kairi laughed a bit at Namine's impersonation of their mother as Namine kicked her bag back under her bed again.

"That was _almost_ a good impression of how I imagined her saying it to me earlier"

Kairi sighed again then, hugging the doll to her chest as she felt her stomach rumble.

"I cannot wait until Mom and Dad finish that stupid catalogue before we get proper food. My stomach can't take it"

Namine bought her legs back up onto the bed again, smiling sadly.

"I know it's hard to adjust to at the moment Kai, but I'm sure they'll be done with that catalogue soon enough"

Kairi slowly shook her head dismissively at Namine's reply.

"I really don't understand how you can be so calm about all of this, Nami. I mean sure, you have argued with Mom and Dad a little too before we came here, but you handled it a lot better than I did"

Namine gave a small shrug.

"That's because I can understand what Mom and Dad are going through right now. It's not completely their fault"

Kairi huffed then and closed her eyes.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. If Mom hadn't crashed into that truck… Maybe things would be better, you know"

Namine said nothing to that at first. Instead, she covered herself over with her bed covers.

"Don't worry about that now, Kairi. Just get some sleep. Perhaps you'll feel better once you get some rest"

Kairi stared at her sister in silence for a moment before giving a tired nod.

"Yeah. That might be a good idea"

She carefully sat up and placed her doll beside her pillow, carefully climbing under her bed covers too. Both girls lay down simultaneously on their sides, with Namine on her left side and Kairi on her right side, tiredly smiling at one another.

"Night Namine"

Kairi carefully reached up to the light switch above her bed and quickly flicked it off, putting the whole room in darkness. The only light around now came from outside in the hallway.

"Goodnight Kairi..."

Namine snuggled a bit further under the covers before slowly closing her eyes. Kairi briefly turned over onto her other side to stare at her doll, still smiling tiredly.

"Night, little me..."

Her voice was barely above a whisper. Slowly, Kairi rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. Before long, both sisters were fast asleep. The only sounds that could be heard now came from outside, as the rain continued to pound down hard. I'm sure the two were hoping that tomorrow would get better for them…

* * *

Kairi's eyes snapped open suddenly when she heard the sound of squeaking within the room. She frowned at this and slowly sat up. It was no longer raining outside now, and the sky seemed a lot darker than it had done previously. Kairi guessed she had been sleeping for some time now before the noise had woken her up.

(Did I hear... squeaking?)

Kairi glanced over at Namine curiously then, who still appeared to be sleeping soundly. She didn't appear to be disturbed at all by what she'd heard. And now it seemed the squeaking sound had stopped. Had she imagined it?

(I'm probably imagining things. Namine would be awake too if she'd heard it...)

Kairi sighed a bit then.

(I should try and get back to sleep)

As Kairi went to lie back down again, she froze when the same squeaking she'd heard before sounded again. This time however it was louder, and it appeared to be coming from underneath her bed. Was she still imagining things?

With her frown still in place, Kairi slowly sat up and leaned over the bed so could see underneath it. She gasped out of surprise as she saw a small white mouse staring back at her. It had a long pink tail that curled a little at the end.

(A-A mouse?! How did that get in here?!)

Kairi nearly fell off the bed out of fright as the little mouse squeaked loudly and darted underneath her head. For a mouse, it did appear to be quite fast. She quickly sat back up on the bed again as the mouse struggled to crawl underneath the bedroom door.

(... What is going...?)

For a moment, Kairi seemed lost in a trance. But then she remembered that she had to try and do something about it. Reacting quickly, Kairi climbed off her bed and dashed towards Namine's, gently grabbing the blonde girl by her shoulders and shaking her a bit to try to wake her up.

"Namine! Namine! Quick! Wake up!"

Her voice was slightly louder than a whisper. Namine groaned quietly as she finally felt Kairi trying to shake her awake. Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she tried to get her bearings around the darkened room.

"Kairi...? What's the matter...?"

She sounded really tired. Then again, Kairi had just shook her awake. So that probably explains why.

Kairi quickly moved out the way of Namine's vision and pointed towards the bedroom door.

"There's a mouse trying to get out of our bedroom!"

Namine tiredly sat up and rubbed her eyes with one hand, staring towards their bedroom door in silence for a few moments. After a moment, Namine sighed tiredly.

"... Kairi, are you sure you're not hearing and seeing things? Because I don't see a mouse"

Kairi followed Namine's gaze, only to find the mouse was no longer there. Well that explained why she didn't hear any squeaking anymore...

"B-But it was right there! I saw it! I-"

"Kairi, please just go back to sleep. This isn't the time to be messing around with my head"

Kairi fell quiet as Namine pulled the covers over herself and lay back down on her side, turning her back to her. With a quiet huff, Kairi slowly climbed back onto her bed again.

(Why don't you ever believe me about things, Namine?)

But that was when she heard the squeaking again. It was definitely coming from outside the bedroom. Kairi quickly glanced back at Namine again, who had once again fallen back to sleep.

(She probably won't believe me if I try and wake her up again. I might as well go and investigate this myself...)

But then Kairi frowned at that. Investigate by herself? She had never really gone anywhere without Namine. Then again, she was only going downstairs to catch a mouse, right? She wouldn't be long.

Wrapping her blanket around her shoulders, Kairi quietly climbed off the bed and tiptoed towards the door, being careful not to wake Namine up. She silently opened the door and poked her head around it.

At first, she saw nothing but a dark hallway before her. It was taking her eyes a while to adjust. However, a small squeak suddenly broke the silence surrounding her. Kairi jumped a bit and looked towards the stairs to see the little white mouse staring back at her again, before it quickly dashed down the stairs.

(Gotcha!)

Kairi quietly dashed after the mouse down the stairs and tailed it into the living room, being careful that her footsteps didn't make any thudding noises on the floor. She didn't want to wake up her parents either…

She paused in the doorway of the living room and looked around with curious eyes.

(Where did it go...?)

A small squeak sounded from underneath the sofa. Kairi looked to see the small mouse poke its head out from underneath it, staring up at Kairi with innocent little eyes. As Kairi began to run towards it, the little mouse dashed towards the small door at the other end of the room. It struggled a bit to get between the door and the wall, since the gap was pretty small, but managed to squeeze itself behind it eventually.

Kairi smirked a little as she quickly knelt down in front of the door. She remembered that her Mother hadn't locked it. It was trapped now.

(I have you now, mouse!)

As Kairi flung the door open, she was surprised at what she saw. Instead of the brick wall that had been there previously, there was now a large bright purple tunnel before her. And sure enough, the little mouse was running along it and through another tiny door at the other end. The tunnel didn't appear to be that long.

Kairi blinked at it in surprise, rubbing her eyes a little. Was she dreaming? She couldn't tell, but curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. Her gut had been right after all, and Kairi felt very happy about that. She'd finally proved Namine wrong about something for once! But now, she wanted to investigate where the mouse had run off to at the other end of the tunnel.

Kairi allowed her blanket to slip off her shoulders and land on the floor behind her, staring back towards the entrance of the living room. Should she go and wake Namine up? She shook her head. The tunnel might disappear if she did that. After all, Namine didn't believe in these kinds of things like she did. She'd probably just tell her to go back to sleep again and dismiss the whole thing.

Getting onto her hands and knees, Kairi slowly began to crawl through the door and into the tunnel. The inside of the tunnel felt soft and cushiony, and it was able to hold Kairi's weight as well, which she was relieved about. At least she didn't have to worry about falling through it!

As she slowly approached the other door, Kairi hesitated for a moment. What on earth was she getting herself into? She knew there was only one way to find out… Kairi took a deep breath before slowly pushing the door open with one hand.

She frowned a bit in confusion at what she saw. She was back in the living room again? That wasn't the strangest part though. The living room looked like it had been flipped around. Everything was facing the opposite way to how it was before. And not only that, but she could see a light coming from outside in the hallway. Had she woken Mom and Dad up?

Kairi gave a small shrug as she slowly got to her feet and walked out of the living room. She had completely forgotten about the mouse now. Maybe she was dreaming after all...

She looked around at the furniture in the living room just to be sure. It all seemed the same. So why did it feel… strange?

She paused however when the smell of food wafted into the room. She sniffed the air curiously.

(Huh... That smells nice. Where's it coming from?)

Kairi decided to follow the scent out of the living room and into the dining room. She finally found where the light was coming from. It was coming from the kitchen. Who was up making food at this hour? Kairi quietly approached the door and gently pushed it open, getting quite a surprise.

Her mother was humming quietly and cooking at the other end of the kitchen. She seriously had to be dreaming now, right? Right?

This Kairi raised an eyebrow at. Firstly, her mother had made it clear that she never cooked. And secondly, why was she up at this time of the night?

Looks like Kairi was about to find out. She cautiously took a step into the kitchen.

"... Mom? What are you doing cooking in the middle of the night?"

Her mother stopped for a moment and slowly turned around, flashing a bright smile in Kairi's direction. She was holding a bowl and spoon in hand, and appeared to be mixing something up.

"You're just in time for supper, dear"

Kairi stifled back a gasp of shock as her eyes fell upon her Mother's face. Her eyes were a pair of black buttons. What was this? She resembled her Mother. She had the same hair and colour, same clothes... But button eyes? Aqua definitely didn't have button eyes.

Kairi frowned a bit then and took another cautious step forward.

"_You're_ not my mother. My Mother doesn't have..."

She seemed really frightened by the fact that this woman had button eyes. She couldn't pronounce the word properly, let alone get it out of her mouth.

"B-Bu-Bu-"

"-Buttons?"

The woman had finished the sentence for her, still smiling. She gently placed the bowl and spoon on the table, tapping the side of one of her button eyes with a finger.

"Do you like them? I'm your Other Mother, silly!"

She sounded very jolly in contrast to Aqua. Kairi stared at the woman in confusion as she turned her back to her again. Other Mother? She had another Mother?

The woman, who revealed herself to be the Other Mother, knelt down and opened up the oven.

"Now, go tell your Other Father that dinner is ready"

(Other Mother? Other Father? I have... two sets of parents?)

Kairi continued to stare at the Other Mother in confusion. She couldn't comprehend any of this at all. As the Other Mother slowly stood up again to grab a white oven glove with a chicken face on it, she turned back to Kairi again. Her smile was still in place.

"Well, go on then! He's in his study"

Kairi continued to stare at her weirdly as she slowly walked out of the kitchen, heading towards the "Other Father's" study. Kairi had noticed another strange thing about this house. The lighting here was actually a lot brighter than before. Just what was going on?

(What is going on here? Everything in the house is the opposite way around, the lighting here is better, and I have two parents who claim to be my "other" parents... What's next? "Other Namine"?)

She was kind of hoping that there wasn't another Namine running around here either. And speaking of Namine, Kairi was starting to regret not going back upstairs to fetch her. This place was creeping her out. This was the first time she'd actually gone exploring without Namine with her. Namine may not have believed in myths and fantasies like Kairi did, but she still came along with her to keep her company. She wished she had Namine by her side right now...

Upon reaching the study, Kairi once again hesitated. She really was scared to open the door, but decided that being scared wasn't an option right now. Kairi gently pushed the door open after some persuasion from her mind.

The sight that greeted her here was even more shocking than the one from the kitchen. The study was filled with musical instruments, and at the other end of the room was a man who resembled her Father playing a large red piano. He was wearing a red dressing gown, and had his back to Kairi. He wasn't really playing the piano though. He was just pressing random keys with an index finger.

(What happened to the computer?! And the desk?! And- And the boxes?! W-What is this…?)

Kairi had no idea what was going on. Everything had been replaced with musical instruments?

Once again, Kairi took a cautious step forward into the study. She needed to get answers, and hiding back wasn't going to get her anywhere.

"Hello...?"

The man stopped playing the piano then, and slowly turned around on his stool.

"Hello Kairi!"

Kairi's eyes widened a bit when she caught sight of the man, causing her to stumble back a bit. This must be the "Other Father". He did resemble Terra, except he too had black button eyes. And his hair was grey instead of brunette. This was getting weirder and weirder for Kairi...

The Other Father slowly sat straighter on the stool, not fazed at all by Kairi's reaction.

"You want to hear my new song?"

Kairi backed up a bit more as a cautious frown formed on her face.

"My Dad can't play the piano…"

"No need to!"

The top of the piano suddenly opened as white gloves sprung out of it on thin metal like arms, appearing on either side of the Other Father. Kairi gasped a bit out of surprise. The piano had _hands_?! The Other Father continued to grin at her.

"This piano plays for me!"

The gloves automatically slipped themselves onto his hands. He quickly swung back around so that he was facing the piano as the gloves quickly pulled him round. To Kairi's shock, the hands began to play the piano perfectly. It sounded like a very jolly tune. The Other Father slowly turned around in a circle along with the piano as he began to sing, tapping and slowly swaying to the tune.

"Making up a song about Kairi,

She's a peach, she's a doll, she's always so smiley,

She's as cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who ever laid their eyes on Ka-i-ri,

When she comes around exploring, Mom and I will never, ever make it boring,

Our eyes will be on Kairi!"

Kairi stood there in a mixture of surprise, shock, and happiness. He'd made up a song about her? And he could actually sing? He definitely didn't sound as tone deaf as her actual Father did, that's for sure!

When the piano returned back to its original position, with the Other Father having his back to her again, Kairi cautiously walked over to him then. Her shock, surprise and happiness had faded quickly now. She'd remembered why she had come to the study in the first place.

"Erm... I'm sorry, but..."

She gently prodded the Other Father's shoulder. The Other Father quickly turned around to face her, still having the gloves on his hands. His smile was still there.

"... _She_ told me to tell you that dinner is ready"

The Other Father rubbed his gloved hands together then.

"Mmmm... Who's starving? Raise your hand"

He raised up his right hand, but then the piano raised his left one up too. This hit the Other Father underneath the chin.

"Whoa!"

Kairi giggled a little at his reaction, and she soon found herself smiling. He was still smiling also. This didn't seem so bad now. In fact, Kairi was actually starting to enjoy herself.

* * *

By the time Kairi and the Other Father had reached the kitchen, the Other Mother had placed the cooked chicken in the middle of the table. Along with this however, there were a variety of other foods there too. And it was quite a lot. Kairi was surprised at this, and just staring at the food made her stomach rumble. It looked better than the slop Terra had served earlier.

The table itself was quite long, and there were four seats placed at it. Two chairs were positioned at the top end of the table, while two other chairs were sat opposite each other on the sides of the table. Kairi guessed the four seats were there for her, the Other Father, the Other Mother, and the "Other Namine" if there was one…

Speaking of the "Other Namine", as the three quietly took their seats Kairi noticed that there was no sign of any "Other Namine" anywhere. This she found odd, but didn't dwell on it for much longer. Kairi had taken the head of the table by the kitchen, while the Other Mother sat on the right side of her. The Other Father was sat on the left of Kairi.

The three put their hands together as the Other Father said a prayer.

"We give our thanks and ask to bless, our Mother's golden chicken breast"

He began to laugh at his own joke as the Other Mother smiled at him modestly, waving a dismissive hand in his direction. Kairi found herself giggling a bit at this. She didn't know why.

As the dinner commenced, Kairi found her appetite to be a lot bigger than she'd originally thought. The Other Mother continually offered her food from all the plates on the table, even while she was still stuffing food into her mouth. Not only that, but she found smoothies were attached to the chandelier above the table, along with the fact that the Other Mother had a gravy train riding around too.

Funnily enough, the whole time she'd been here everything that had happened was something she'd imagined in her head once. Well, close enough to what she'd imagined anyway… She was the fantasy type who tended to conjure things up in her head a lot. The way everything had planned out was almost similar to that, but Kairi also noticed that what was happening clashed with what happened earlier today. It almost like this world was taking those problems and making them better for her. She felt a lot happier now, and she was glad.

But then guilt began to take over her. While she was sitting here and getting good food, Namine was still back at the house sleeping. She felt like asking if she was allowed to take some food back with her. But that thought was suddenly knocked out of her head when the Other Mother placed a large pink cake in front of Kairi.

The candles suddenly lit themselves, and the following words appeared on the cake one by one: Welcome home!

Kairi stared at the Other Mother with confusion.

"_Home_?"

The Other Father had walked around from the other side of the table to stand behind the Other Mother's chair. The two smiled sweetly at Kairi as they held hands.

"We've been waiting for you, Kairi"

Kairi raised an eyebrow then, placing a hand to her chest.

"For _me_?"

"Yep! It wasn't the same without you, kiddo!" The Other Father added. "Well, you and Namine of course!"

Kairi folded her arms then as the Other Mother looked around curiously.

"Speaking of Namine, where is she? I thought she would have been with you"

Kairi bit her lip at that. What was she supposed to tell them?

"Well… I'm not sure, really. She must have been too tired, I guess"

She quickly changed the topic.

"But how did you know I had another Mother?"

The Other Mother continued to smile sweetly.

"Everyone has another Mother, silly!"

Kairi tilted her head a bit to the side.

"Really…?"

"U-huh. And after you've finished eating, I thought you'd like to play a game!"

Kairi's eyes flitted to the table as she watched the other Mother tap her fingers on it repeatedly. Why did she find that so strange?

"You mean like… hide and seek?"

"Perfect! Hide and Seek-"

She leaned forward a bit towards Kairi.

"-In the rain"

Kairi had a quick look out the window before turning her head back towards the Other Parents.

"But it isn't raining out-"

Kairi jumped suddenly as thunder and lightning suddenly sounded outside. Scratch that. It was raining _now_. But still, that had been too coincidental…

She continued to stare at the two with a confused frown.

"But… What about the mud?"

The Other Father moved away from the chair and outstretched his arms enthusiastically, still grinning.

"We love mud here!"

The Other Mother slowly got up and walked over towards Kairi's chair.

"Mud facials, mud baths, mud pies…"

She gently took hold of one of Kairi's hands.

"It's great for poison oak too"

Kairi slowly pulled her hand away.

"How did you know I-"

She paused mid-sentence then. She was starting to get a bit frightened. How did this woman know everything about her, and about the problems she had today…?

Kairi slowly got up off her chair and backed away from the Other Mother.

"I-I mean, I'd like to play, but I'd better get home to my Other Mother"

"But I'm your Other Mother"

The Other Mother had leaned forward a bit towards Kairi, still smiling. It was really starting to creep her out.

"I-I mean my Other, _Other_ Mother. Mom number one"

She accidently walked into the Other Father who appeared behind her moments before, and slowly backed away. He laughed a bit and waved. Kairi sighed a little.

"I… I really think I should get to bed"

The Other Mother carefully placed a hand on Kairi's back, slowly ushering her away from the dining room.

"Of course, sweetheart. Your bed is already made up"

"But-"

"Come along sleepyhead"

The Other Father had also started gently ushering Kairi out the dining room and up the stairs from behind. It seems they had gotten the wrong end of the stick. She hadn't meant to sleep _here_. But it was just until the morning, right? She was sure they'd let her return home then.

* * *

When they reached the bedroom however, Kairi got the biggest shock of her life. The walls, ceiling and floor were a bright pink. There was a white dresser in between two large well-made beds, and two bedside tables of the same colour beside both beds too. The two beds in the room had frilly white covers over them, along with pink bed covers for the bed on the right, and blue bed covers for the bed on the left. Even the fireplace looked much cleaner and bigger than the one back in their other room.

(What's happened to the bedroom? It looks so much more… appealing)

Kairi slowly felt her eyes begin to try to close. She was a lot more tired than she originally thought. The Other Mother slowly led her over to her bed, helping her climb into it and tuck her in before sitting down in the wooden chair beside it. Out of instinct, Kairi turned her head over towards the other bed. But when her eyes glanced upon it, she remembered Namine wasn't there.

The Other Mother seemed to notice this as she slowly took out a small white jar from her pocket, gently placing it on her lap.

"Worrying about Namine, dear?"

Kairi gave a small, but tired nod. The bed was much more comfy than the one she was actually supposed to be sleeping in. The Other Mother carefully opened the jar and tipped some mud into the palm of her hand. She gently took hold of Kairi's hand with the other, smothering some of the mud over the poison oak rash.

"I wouldn't worry about a thing! Namine should come with you next time hopefully! After all, you two are an inseparable pair"

Kairi gave another tired nod as the Other Mother put mud on her other hand as well. She yawned a bit and snuggled down under the covers, having her back to the chair beside her bed. She was kind of dismissing what was being said due to tiredness.

The Other Mother remained where she was as the Other Father quietly walked in to stand beside the chair. Kairi was struggling to keep her eyes open now.

(Is this… all real?)

Gradually giving in, Kairi slowly closed her eyes as the Other Mother and Other Father continued to smile down at her.

"See you soon…"


	4. Chapter 4: Investigation

**Sorry I took a while to update this. School has been keeping me busy, and I haven't had much of a muse for some of my fanfics at the moment. I'm slowly trying to get it back though. Thanks again to those who have favourited, followed, and read this story. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy the next chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Where does Investigation lead you?

"Kairi! Kairi! Mom's calling us! Wake up!"

Kairi slowly opened her eyes to find Namine kneeling on the edge of her bed, gently shaking her awake by her shoulder with a hand. She yawned and tiredly lifted up a hand to try to swat her away.

"Go away Namine. I'm trying to sleep"

She sounded really tired. It was easy to tell that in her tone. But then Kairi's eyes widened when they fell upon the palm of her hand. Namine hadn't taken any notice of this however. She moved away from the hand that Kairi was trying to swat her with, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"You just dismissed what I said, didn't you? _Mom's_ calling us downstairs to eat. So come on, get up!"

Namine raised a confused eyebrow at Kairi then as she noticed her slowly sit up, still staring at her palm curiously. The poison oak rash was gone. Kairi's gaze switched to her other hand. It was gone on that hand too. How was this possible?

"Kairi…? You okay…?"

Namine was confused as to why Kairi had acted like she'd seen a ghost. Kairi had a quick look around the room. Everything was back to how it had been before heading to the Other World: the old fireplace, the bed, her doll by the pillow, the dull coloured walls and floor, and Namine in the bedroom…

(Everything is back to normal. Was I dreaming? But my hands don't have the poison oak rash anymore. I wonder…)

Kairi suddenly leapt up off her bed and ran out the room as fast as she could. Confused, Namine quickly ran after her.

"Kairi! What is up with you this morning?"

She tried her best to keep up with her sister as she watched Kairi run down the stairs, leaping over the last two steps and heading straight for the living room. Kairi dropped to her knees quickly in front of the little door and flung it open again.

Her shoulders slumped when she was met with the brick wall again. All her hope and excitement was gone within a flash. Namine skidded to a halt in the doorway of the living room, breathing heavily. She stared at Kairi with confusion as her gaze fell upon her kneeling by the door.

"Kairi, what has gotten into you?"

Kairi slowly stood up again and turned to face Namine with confusion on her face as well.

"Do you remember me waking you up last night and telling you about a mouse?"

Namine frowned a bit in thought for a moment.

"… Yes, yes I did, which by the way I'm still not happy about. Thanks to you, I lost some time for sleeping. I'm too tired"

Kairi's eyes widened a bit then.

"Wait a minute… That did actually happen?"

Namine raised a confused eyebrow at Kairi and slowly nodded.

"Yes Kairi. You should be able to tell by how tired my eyes look"

She pointed towards her eyes to add onto her point. Kairi's gaze went straight back towards the door. A smile slowly crept onto her face.

"So… If that was real, then…"

Kairi stared down at her hands in awe, her voice coming out as a whisper.

"Everything I saw… It was… real… I wasn't dreaming…"

Namine continued to frown at Kairi in confusion.

"Kairi, what in Kingdom Hearts are you talking about?"

After a moment of silence, Kairi shrieked happily and jumped up and down a bit. Namine wasn't expecting this reaction and so she was quite taken aback by it, especially when Kairi ran over to her and shook her violently by the shoulders.

"I was right, Namine! I was right!"

Namine cringed a bit when Kairi shouted, trying to pull herself away from her hyper sister.

"Kairi! Calm down! What were you right about?!"

Kairi quickly let go of Namine then and pointed towards the open tiny door.

"There _is_ something behind there! My gut was right! And I saw it last night! I wasn't imagining it!"

Namine frowned worriedly at Kairi then. This wasn't the first time she'd seen her get so happy over anything related to fantasy and such, but this was concerning. Kairi had _never _freaked out like this before. But why had it been over that door? Had Kairi conjured up what she thought was behind it?

"Kairi-"

Her sentence was cut off when Kairi grabbed her shoulders tightly again.

"You should have seen it, Namine! There is another world behind that brick wall! I saw the mouse run to it through a purple tunnel! I was right!"

Once again, Namine had to forcefully pry herself away from her sister, stumbling a bit in the process. She carefully placed a hand to her head.

"Kairi. Are you _sure _you weren't dreaming?"

Kairi was nodding her head eagerly in response.

"I wasn't! I mean, look!"

She held up both her hands.

"She healed the rash by putting mud on my hands! See? It's gone!"

Namine frowned a bit then.

"Who?"

"The Other Mother!"

"The… what?"

Without warning, Kairi quickly grabbed Namine by her wrist and dragged her into the kitchen. Aqua was currently in there standing by the kettle, waiting for it to finish boiling. She didn't notice that Kairi had yanked Namine into the kitchen quite abruptly. Kairi pointed at her Mother's back.

"She looked exactly like Mom, but she had black buttons for eyes! You know, like the ones on my doll? And- And- She was standing over here cooking food and humming!"

Kairi pointed to where the cooker was on the other side of the kitchen. Namine continued to stare at her sister in confusion as she tried to comprehend what she was saying. Aqua looked back at the two of them with curiosity as the kettle whistled loudly.

"What are you two talking about?"

Namine sighed heavily as she took a seat at the table, with Kairi quickly taking a seat opposite her.

"Kairi's going on about a dream she had last night, and apparently you were there Mom. But you had button eyes"

Kairi shook her head defiantly.

"It wasn't a dream! It was real! Mom was standing over there cooking chicken! I know! I ate it!"

Aqua sighed heavily as she came over to the table and poured the boiled water from the kettle into two of the mugs already placed there.

"Kairi, you must have dreamt you ate all that chicken. You really need to start taking your vitamins if you're gonna dream about food constantly"

She carefully carried the kettle back over to the stand just as Terra walked in with a newspaper under his arm. Kairi continued to shake her head defiantly as Namine facepalmed.

"I _wasn't_ dreaming! Dad was there too!"

"I was where?"

Terra hadn't really been paying much attention as he approached the table, grabbing his coffee mug with one hand, and then spilling his papers all over the floor shortly after. With a huff, he quickly bent down to pick them up with one hand.

"You were in Kairi's dream Dad, _apparently_" Namine answered tiredly.

She was already sick of hearing her sister go on about this. Kairi leaned over the table a little towards Namine.

"It was not! But Dad was there! And he was wearing this bright red dressing gown, and could play the piano with these mechanical hands!"

Terra chuckled a little as he carefully stood up again, now putting the papers underneath his arm.

"Kairi, we both know that my dressing gown is black"

He leaned towards her though and lowered his voice a bit.

"But could you get me some of that "magic mud" you were shouting about earlier? Because I have a terrible case of writer's rash, right on my-"

"Ahem!"

Terra froze then and widened his eyes out of fright as Aqua narrowed her eyes at him from across the other side of the kitchen.

"If the real Terra Heart wants his pages edited, he'd better wrap them up asap"

Terra quickly walked out the room then, knowing better than to argue with Aqua over the catalogue. Aqua sighed then and walked back over to the table.

"Kairi, why don't you go and talk to the neighbours downstairs? I bet those… "scientists" would love to hear about your dream"

She carefully gathered the newspaper off the table and cup off the table and headed towards the other end of the kitchen again. Kairi frowned.

"Even and Ienzo? But you said they're dingbats!"

Aqua paused with her coffee mug in hand and the newspaper underneath her arm, and slowly turned around to face Kairi and Namine still sat at the table.

"Exactly"

Kairi raised an eyebrow at her mother as the two girls silently watched her leave the kitchen. Kairi glanced at Namine then confused.

"Is she trying to say I'm as crazy as them?"

Namine folded her arms and leaned back in her chair a bit.

"Probably. And I agree with her"

Kairi glared at her sister then.

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Kairi, when have I ever believed you about your little "fantasy" moments?"

Kairi huffed loudly and stood up from her chair.

"I'm not lying, Namine! It really did happen! Honest!"

Namine waved a hand dismissively then as she got up from the table, and slowly walked over to the cupboards to search for a bowl.

"Sure. Whatever, Kairi"

Kairi sighed then and leaned back in her chair.

"Fine. Don't believe me! But they were expecting you too, you know! It wasn't just me!"

Namine glanced back at Kairi with a confused frown then.

"I wasn't there? There was no "other me"?"

She shook her head at her in response.

"No. There was no "other you" there, funnily enough. The Other Mother asked me where you were though. I didn't tell her much at the time, because I found the whole ordeal strange"

Namine continued to frown a bit as she turned back to the cupboard, carefully pulling out the bowl found on the bottom shelf.

"O… kay…?"

She decided not to push the topic any further.

For the rest of breakfast, all Namine heard from Kairi was about this world she'd found, which she had nicknamed "The Other World". Namine acknowledged everything that Kairi told her, but she couldn't help but wonder why it had made Kairi so happy. She'd been living in her own little fantasy world ever since they'd gotten here, yet Kairi had remained intact with what was going on around her. Now, she seemed to be taking reality itself and correcting her problems within a dream. It made Namine worry about Kairi's state of mind. Had the problems with the food, the poison oak, the boredom, and their parents neglecting them taken a nasty toll on Kairi? She couldn't really tell…

But that wasn't the strange part. Kairi had dreamt up the "Other Father" and the "Other Mother", but there had not been a doppelgänger for her. Why was this so? Why was there no "Other Namine"? And the woman in the dream had been asking about her, just like Kairi had said before. As Namine had sat there and listened to Kairi's explanation of the events that had occurred, she was quite surprised at the most part when these people had made references to her. But the majority of it sounded like Kairi's imagination. Namine had no idea on what to think about this subject at all. And she had no idea on what to do about Kairi.

* * *

Later that day, Kairi and Namine were allowed to go outside now, since the rain had stopped. Luckily for them, this was a good thing. They wouldn't be cooped up inside the house all day, and their parents wouldn't be getting bugged by them either. Kairi had wanted to drag Namine back to the old well again to do some more investigating, much to Namine's displeasure. But she obliged anyway, since she didn't want her sister to hurt herself. But as Namine followed her sister out of the door after putting on her raincoat, she heard Kairi yelp and saw her stumble a bit to the right.

"Kairi, are you okay?"

Kairi glared towards a large pile of funny shaped packages placed beside the door. Namine realised then that Kairi had probably walked into them without realising. The pile reached up to the girls' knees.

Kairi bent down and scooped them up into her arms, suddenly seeming excited.

"Maybe there's something in these packages for us! If I can find one with our names on it that is…"

Namine peeked over at the pile from behind Kairi as Kairi slowly went through the pile of packages one by one.

"Let's see… Mr Myde, Mr Myde, Mr Myde, also Mr Myde…"

She muttered the names on the packages as she went through each one individually, until finally Kairi let out a loud huff.

"No packages for us by the looks of things. Just for someone called "Mr Myde"… Who is that anyway?"

Namine glanced around until her eyes fell upon a set of wooden steps leading up towards the top of the house. It even pointed out the obvious with a white arrow sign stuck in the ground beside it, which said "Demyx Myde" on it. He must have been the neighbour whose home resided within the attic part of the house.

"I think he's the one who lives upstairs, Kairi…"

Kairi turned towards Namine and followed her gaze towards the steps. She frowned.

"What! Do they expect people to carry _this_ up to him instead?"

"The packages must have been sent to the wrong address"

"What is even inside these packages?"

Kairi was asking way too many questions for Namine to even bother answering the rest, so she just remained quiet instead and watched her sister's actions. Kairi stared at the top package currently in her arms with curiosity, giving it a small sniff as she did. Whatever was inside it was round, which was the case with every other package too, except that they were all different shapes.

Kairi quickly turned her head away from the packages, shuddering at the smell.

"Ew! That smells horrible!"

Namine raised an eyebrow in confusion, but that confusion was soon replaced by shock as Kairi went to dump the packages back on the step.

"Kairi, careful! That's not your property! You can't just go dumping other people's belongings down like that! Why don't you just take it upstairs to him?"

Kairi frowned towards Namine, clearly disgusted by the idea. But then her face suddenly lit up when an idea came to her. She smiled innocently at Namine, or at least she _tried_ to make it look innocent.

"Alright, Nami. If you care _that_ much about our neighbour's mail, then you go and take it to him"

Namine went to object, but was stopped mid-sentence when Kairi shoved the packages into her arms, which caused her to stumble back from surprise. She looked around the packages at Kairi out of shock and confusion when she managed to regain her balance.

"W-What?! Why me?!"

Kairi smirked at her sister in response, folding her arms.

"You clearly did not hear what I just said. Since you care so much about our neighbour's mail, then take it too him! See, easy! Now off you go! I can wait down here for you!"

She wanted to argue with her sister, but knew she wouldn't get anywhere. Namine sighed heavily as Kairi swirled her around to face the other way, and gave her an "encouraging" shove forward. The blonde stumbled a bit, but managed to regain her balance. She slowly descended up the steps, taking into account of how high Mr Myde's room was off the ground. This is why she hated being the younger sister. Kairi always seemed to think that she could boss her around because she was the eldest.

After being careful walking up the steps, and making sure to watch her footing as she went, Namine finally found herself outside of their neighbour's door. Holding the packages with one hand, she used the other to knock loudly on the door.

"Hello?"

She called out as loudly as she could so their neighbour could hear her. After a moment of silence, Namine assumed she hadn't received a response. She definitely hadn't heard it if they had tried to reply. She decided to knock on the door again a bit louder this time, just to make sure that their neighbour had heard her.

"Hello? Mr Myde? I think our mail got mixed up with yours!"

Still nothing. Was he even in? Namine placed her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything from inside. At first, there was nothing. Maybe that was because the door wood was really thick. She wasn't sure.

"Do you want me to leave this on the doorstep for you, or- Whoa!"

Namine's weight added to the door seemed to open it almost immediately. It must have been a very weakly made door for that to happen. She fell forward and landed face first on the floor. The packages went flying up into the air out of her hands, quickly coming down to land in a small heap in front of her head, with one happening to land right on the back of her head.

"Namine! Are you okay up there?!"

It seems Kairi had heard her shouting out from shock only moments ago. Namine slowly lifted up her head, squinting her eyes slightly as she gazed around the dimly lit room. This definitely appeared to be the attic. The walls were made of stone in some places, but most of it along with the floor was dull brown coloured wood. There seemed to be random equipment littered everywhere. From bike wheels to random white sheets caked in dust and covering different shaped objects scattered everywhere, it looked more like the attic it was supposed to be than someone's apartment.

(This place is a mess. Has this person ever thought about clearing this out?)

As Namine carefully picked herself up off the floor and collected the small packages back into her arms again, a loud gasp sounded behind her. This caused her to jump from fright.

"Don't go in there!"

She quickly moved back out of shock as a blonde mullet headed man quickly dashed in front of her and slammed the door shut from the outside. She noticed that he had a sitar in his hands. The man let out a huge breath of relief and turned back to face her, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly with one hand.

"Sorry about that. I just don't want anyone seeing my mice and water clone circus yet! It's not ready for an audience! I still have a lot of work to do"

Namine frowned a little in confusion at that. Did she hear that right?

"… Did you say "mice" and "water clone" circus?"

The man grinned widely and held up his sitar.

"Yep! I'm teaching mice how to sing and dance using my sitar! At first, it was just a water clone circus, but so far I can't seem to make the water rise out of the bucket. That is why I have started training mice too! They learn quicker than water!"

Namine found this man to be quite… What was the word? Oh yeah: _crazy_. Training mice, she could understand. But _water_? Did this guy think he had superpowers or something?

The man placed a hand to his chin then as he continued to talk.

"Although the mice themselves still have a lot of work! I can't seem to get them to play a similar tune to my sitar. They play the right tune, but they can't seem to play it properly"

And while Namine had wandered off into her thoughts as this man went on and on about his circus, she suddenly remembered why she had come here.

"Oh! Sorry for peeking by the way! I just came to give you these packages. I think our mail might have gotten mixed up"

The man's grin dropped and his expression became one of curiosity as he carefully took the packages from her hands. Namine let out a quiet sigh of relief. She was glad she didn't have to stick with that smell anymore. It had been making her eyes water. She could see why Kairi had dumped the packages with her now.

"Ah! This must be the new cheese samples I ordered! Thank you!"

As he quickly opened the door and threw the packages inside his home - which Namine found to be quite strange - while he was trying to balance his sitar in his hands as well, he held out a hand towards for her to shake.

"I'm Demyx by the way. Demyx Myde! I'm guessing you're one of the new neighbours who recently moved in?"

Namine gave a shy nod and smile as she took Demyx's hand, shaking it slowly.

"I'm Namine. It's nice to meet you, Demyx! Sorry for the inconvenience"

Demyx soon retracted his hand, giving a sheepish grin.

"I wouldn't worry about it. It happens all the time! They fail to see that my home is actually up the steps! But yes, it's nice to meet you too- Natalia, was it?"

Namine slowly shook her head, trying hard not to look annoyed in front of Demyx. She knew it wasn't his fault, but it happened sometimes. People did get hers and Kairi's names mixed up with something else. She was used to it. How they managed it she didn't know.

"It's _Namine_"

Demyx chuckled sheepishly, trying to avert his gaze due to embarrassment.

"Right, Namine. Sorry! I'm terrible with names!"

Namine's eyes fell back upon the door behind him then as she frowned a bit with curiosity.

"So… Why did you order such strong smelling cheese anyway? If you don't mind me asking of course!"

She added the last part on quite hastily as Demyx looked back towards his apartment door.

"Well, since the mice have been struggling to match the tune I'm teaching them perfectly, I thought I'd change their diets around a bit. Apparently it's supposed to work really well!"

Namine kept her comments to herself about this idea. She did not see how change the diet of an animal would change the way they played an instrument. Sure, it might affect their behaviour in some way, but playing an instrument?

"Namine, why are you taking so long?! Come on!"

Namine peeked over the side of the railing to see Kairi waiting for her by the steps. She frowned in her sister's direction.

"Okay, okay Kairi! Stop being so impatient! I'll be down in a moment!"

She slowly turned back to Demyx with an apologetic smile.

"I apologise for my sister's rudeness. She can get very impatient sometimes. But it was nice meeting you, Demyx"

Demyx continued to smile brightly as Namine quickly walked back down the steps.

"You too, Namine"

Namine stopped for a moment and watched silently as Demyx walked back into his apartment. A few more questions popped into her head.

(Kairi said that a mouse led her towards the "Other World", didn't she…? I wonder if it was one of Demyx's circus mice…)

Namine's gaze thoughtfully landed back on an annoyed looking Kairi as she continued on down the steps towards her sister.

(I'll have to ask her in a moment)

But why had Namine's mind suddenly flitted back to that for? She shook the thoughts away then. This was no time to be worrying over Kairi's little fantasy world.

"Nami, would you hurry please?! That well isn't going to investigate itself, you know!"

As Namine got halfway down the steps, a loud bang suddenly sounded from behind her. She stopped abruptly on the steps.

"Wait, Nami- AH!"

Kairi's eyes widened as she and Namine both glanced back to find Demyx suddenly land on the floor face down of his balcony; although he wasn't there for long. He was the one who had cried out. The blonde was quick to get back up onto his feet again, having left his sitar inside, and dash down the steps towards Namine.

"Wait!"

When he reached her, Demyx leaned against the railing tiredly and began to breathe heavily to get his breath back. Namine could tell that he wasn't a very "fit" person when it came to exercise. She tilted her head to the side in confusion after allowing some time for Demyx to get his breath back.

"What's the matter?"

Demyx slowly looked up and locked eyes with Kairi for a moment, who was currently stood at the bottom of the steps with a confused and frightened look on her face. His gaze then switched to Namine as he slowly leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"The… The mice wanted me to give you a message…"

Namine frowned a bit out of confusion then.

"You… can talk to mice too?"

He gave a quick nod as his gaze went back to Kairi for a moment before switching back to Namine to continue his whispering. This just made Namine think that Demyx was weirder than she thought. Or crazier. She wasn't sure if it was one or both.

"The mice said: Don't let Kairi go through the little door…"

Namine felt her blood run cold the minute Demyx said that. Did they mean the little door behind the wallpaper in their living room? As Demyx slowly moved away from her, he gave a small shrug.

"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"

Namine was left speechless for a good moment or two as her gaze briefly crossed with Kairi's. Kairi was frowning now and standing there with her arms folded, having an eyebrow raised towards the two. She had no idea what Demyx had just said.

(… Are they referring to the door that is in the living room of the house? But, that door is bricked up, isn't it?)

"_You should have seen it, Namine! There is another world behind that brick wall!"_

Kairi's words from this morning echoed throughout her mind again.

(Could it be possible? Is Kairi… _right?_)

"Namine, you okay?"

Namine was quick to snap out of her train of thought as Demyx's concerned question penetrated through her mind. Namine blinked a few times to get herself to focus again, before quickly shaking her head.

"No, no. I have no idea what they're talking about"

Demyx gave an apologetic smile as he began to back his way up the steps again slowly.

"Alright. Sorry for bothering you! The mice do tend to get a bit mixed up sometimes, you know. They can be pretty unpredictable. Have a nice day!"

Namine and Kairi silently watched as Demyx quickly headed back up the steps again, after turning around of course. Once she heard the door to his apartment slam shut, Namine continued on her way down the steps again towards an unhappy and grumpy Kairi.

"Why did he stop you?"

Should she tell Kairi what was said? Probably not. It would lead them into another argument about that door, and that is something Namine did not want to cause again.

The two slowly began to walk away from the Pink Palace as Namine gave a small shrug in response.

"Oh, nothing really. He just asked me if I happened to see a small mouse wandering around anywhere"

Kairi came to a stop then as Namine said that, with her eyes widening slightly.

"D-Did you say "mouse"?"

Namine came to a quick stop in her walking as well, slowly turning around to face Kairi with a confused expression on her face. It seems like she'd triggered something.

"Something wrong, Kairi?"

Kairi's thoughts were slowly piecing two and two together.

(So that mouse that I saw last night… Did that belong to Demyx?)

Namine used this moment to her advantage.

"Questioning the existence of your "Other World" now, Kairi?"

A triumphant smile came to Namine's face as Kairi quickly realised what Namine was trying to get at. She turned her head the other way so she averted her sister's gaze, folding her arms stubbornly.

"N-No…! T-That's just a coincidence! It's a coincidence that Demyx owns that mouse-"

"-You mean _mice_"

Namine cut through Kairi's sentence straight away, causing the auburn haired girl to widen her eyes further out of surprise.

"M-Mice?"

Namine slowly nodded.

"Yes, I said "mice". Demyx owns a lot up there. He's trying to create a circus with them"

Kairi could not believe her ears. Demyx owns a lot of mice?

(… So, did I dream what happened last night?)

Namine sighed a bit then as she turned back around to face the path towards the old garden.

"I guess I should have believed you about the mouse, Kairi. I'll apologise for that. But I'm sure that what you experienced last night was part of a dream, and nothing more"

At hearing that, Kairi's hands were balled into fists. She stormed past her sister and continued on towards the garden.

"I was not dreaming it, Namine! Now come on! We've wasted enough time as it is!"

(Why won't Namine believe me?! I know my mind is full of fantasy sometimes, but I'm still her sister! It's not like I lie!)

Namine watched her sister go ahead with a worried frown on her face.

(… How did Demyx know about that door? And why is all of this happening after what Kairi told me this morning?)

So many questions raced through Namine's mind as she quickly dashed after Kairi. Unbeknownst to her however, the black cat that had been prowling around the area after them the day before, was watching her curiously from within the tall grass near the Pink Palace. It silently waited until she was out of sight before slowly dashing off and away from the Pink Palace. At this moment in time, its actions will remain unknown.


End file.
